Fifty  Years   of  Church  Life  in  North  Carolina 
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Fifty  Years 

of 

Church  Life  in  North  Carolina 

AN  ADDRESS 

BY 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Jos.  Blount  Cheshire,  D.D. 

Bishop  of  North  Carolina 

ON 
THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

OF 

The  Rev.  Robt.  B.  Drane,  D.D, 

As  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Edenton,  N.  C. 

All  Saints'  Day 
1926 

EDENTON,  N.  C. 


*s 


Fifty  Years 

of 

Church  Life  in  North  Carolina 

AN  ADDRESS 
BY 

The  Rt.  Rev.  Jos.  Blount  Cheshire,  D.D. 

Bishop  of  North  Carolina 

ON 
THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

OF 

The  Rev.  Robt.  B.  Drane,  D.D. 
As  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Edenton,  N.  C. 

All  Saints'  Day 
1926 

EDENTON,  N.  C. 


o 

And  these  all,  having  obtained  a  good  re- 
port through  faith,  received  not  the  promise: 
God  having  provided  some  better  thing  for  us, 
that  they  without  us  should  not  be  made 
perfect. 

Hebrews  xiii:39-40. 

I  have  not  chosen  this  passage  as  a  text  to  be  expounded. 
Nor  shall  I  endeavor  to  extract  some  forced  meaning  from  it, 
in  order  to  fit  it  to  myi  subject.  I  take  it  out  of  one  of  the  lessons 
for  this  All  Saints  Day,  because  it  does  refer  to  God's  purpose 
and  method,  in  Nature  as  in  Grace,  of  linking  generation  to  gen- 
eration, in  a  merciful  and  loving  dependence,  and  because  it 
does  also  suggest  the  progressive  development  of  God's  goodness 
and  love,  and  His  increasing  revelation  of  Himself,  as  age  suc- 
ceeds age,  in  His  dealings  with  His  people.  We  look  back  over 
fifty  years.  At  that  distance  the  figures  of  those  whom  we  loved 
and  revered  loom  large  through  the  mist  of  memory  and  tradi- 
tion. "There  were  giants  in  those  days."  How  small  and  puny 
we  seem  to  ourselves,  in  comparison  with  the  great  men  of  our 
youth!  Yet  they  without  us  shall  not  be  made  perfect.  Their 
work  and  their  characters  must  be  fulfilled  in  us.  While  we  pay 
them  the  tribute  due  them,  we  may  remember  with  humility  and 
gratitude  that  we  add  something  to  them  in  carrying  on  their 
work. 

I  am  to  speak  of  the  past  fifty  years  of  our  Church  life  in 
North  Carolina,  from  1876,  when  the  Diocese  was  conterminous 
with  the  State,  to  the  present  year,  1926.  We  were  in  1876  just 
emerging  from  the  ruin  of  1865.  The  Diocese  had  in  a  measure 
adjusted  itself  to  the  changed  conditions,  and  had  begun  to  look 
forward.  It  had  60  clergymen,  96  parishes  and  missions,  and 
4347  communicants.  Among  its  candidates  for  Holy  Orders,  and 
its  newly  ordained  clergymen,  were  a  number  of  men  who  had 
served  with  distinction  in  the  fighting  line  of  the  Confederate 
Army:  Col.  Edwin  A.  Osborne  Maj.  James  A.  Weston,  Edmund 
N.  Joivner  and  others.  The  Bishop's  address  to  the  Convention 
of  1876  struck  a  note  of  confidence  and  of  hope. 

But  though  the  sky  above  was  bright,  the  path  before  them 
was  steep  and  difficult,  and  their  material  equipment  was  sadly 
inadequate.  The  few  clergymen  and  congregations  were  widely 
distributed  over  an  area  of  more  than  fifty  thousand  square 
miles,  with  more  than  a  million  population.  The  clergy  were 
miserably  supported.  Their  average  salary  probably  did  not 
much  exceed  five  hundred  dollars,  and  there  were  few  rectories. 
The  Diocese  did  not  possess  a  single  institution  for  religious, 
charitable  or  educational  work,  except  "Ravenscroft,"  at  Ashe- 


ville,  where  Dr.  Buxton  had  failed  in  his  attempt  to  establish  a 
Boys'  School;  where  Bishop  Atkinson  was  then  making  an 
equally  unsuccessful  effort  to  develop  an  Associate  Mission  and 
Training  School  for  Missionaries;  and  where  Bishop  Lyman  sub- 
sequently repeated  Dr.  Buxton's  failure,  when  he  renewied  the 
experiment  of  starting  a  "'Classical  School  for  Boys,"  without 
adequate  equipment  or  financial  support.  St.  Mary's  School 
was  the  personal  and  private  enterprise  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Aldert 
Smedes. 

The  Diocese  was  a  purely  missionary  organization.  No 
railroad  had  then  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge.  There  were  a  good 
many  crurches,  and  a  number  of  clergymem  west  of  the  moun- 
tains; but  only  Ashe  ville  and  Morganton  could  by  any  stretch  of 
language  be  said  to  have  self-supporting  parishes.  And  the  rec- 
tor of  these  two  both  received  missionary  stipends.  The  prob- 
lem before  the  Diocese  was,  how  to  weld  into  compact  life  and 
effectiveness  the  slender  framework  which  stretched  its  attenu- 
ated members  over  so  vast  a  territory:  "By  whom  shall  Jacob 
arise,  for  he  is  small''? 

Bishop  Atkinson  was  a  great  man.  A  nobler  figure  our  Am- 
erican church  history  does  not  present.  And  being  great,  he  knew 
his  limitations.  He  knew  that  one  man  was  not  sufficient  for  the 
work.  As  early  as  1866  he  had  suggested  the  necessity  of  an- 
other Diocese.  It  was  then  not  practicable,  but  he  prepared  the 
minds  of  his  clergy  and  people.  Year  after  year,  in  address  after 
address,  he  returned  to  this  as  the  only  effectual  remedy.  When 
in  1872  the  Diocesan  Convention  had  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
elect  an  assistant  Bishop  on  account  of  the  extent  of  our  terri- 
tory, it  pledged  the  Convention  to  erect  a  new  Diocese  as  soon 
as  it  should  become  practicable  to  do  so. 

In  1876  a  committee  appointed  the  year  before  presented 
an  elaborate  report,  recommending  the  division  of  the  Diocese 
into  two  new  Dioceses,  the  Diocese  of  Wilmington  and  the 
Diocese  of  Raleigh,  the  latter  with  much  the  larger  territory, 
with  a  view  to  the  early  creation  of  the  Diocese  of  Asheville;  the 
three  to  constitute  the  "Province  of  North  Carolina,"  with  sepa- 
rat~  and  independent  Bishops  and  executive  organizations,  but 
with  a  common  legislative  Council  or  Convention.  And  other 
schemes  were  proposed  from  time  to  time  of  this  general  char- 
acter snd  purpose. 

This  "State  Consciousness."  if  I  may  so  call  it,  was  perhans 
the  greatest  ohstac'p  in  the  nath  of  those  favoring  the  erection 
of  a  new  Diocese.  The  ncculiar  circumstances  of  our  early  set- 
tlement had  so  divided  the  people  of  the  different  sections  that 
the  progress  and  influence  of  North  Carolina  had  been  greatly 
retarded  and  depressed  by  the  lack  of  unity  of  feeling  among  the 


people.  Such  a  unitv  of  public  sentiment  and  interest  had  begun 
to  show  itself  by  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
Confederate  War,  with  its  common  sufferings  and  sacrifices.,  car- 
ried it  on  to  a  sudden  and  intense  development.  Col.  Wm.  L. 
Saunders,  a  very  sagacious  man,  once  said  to  me,  that  it  was  the 
Confederate  War  which  first  made  the  people  of  North  Carolina 
really  one.  In  1876  this  feeling  was  at  its  height,  and  it  told 
strongly  against  the  movement  for  the  new  Diocese. 

The  real  struggle  came  on  in  the  Convention  of  1877,  in  St. 
Peter's  Church,  Charlotte.  After  a  long  and  hard-fought  con- 
test, those  who  favored  the  scheme  carried  the  Convention  with 
them  by  large  majorities.  But  the  settlement  of  the  line  of  divi- 
sion, with  other  details,  had  to  be  postponed  to  an  adjourned 
session,  to  be  held  in  Raleigh  in  the  month  of  September. 

This  adjourned  session  is  the  only  session  of  our  Diocesan 
Convention  which  I  have  failed  to  attend  since  1876.  In  the  pro- 
cess of  settling  details,  the  minority  made  another  appeal  to 
Bishop  Atkinson,  who  had  been  the  father  of  the  movement.  He 
was  now  old  and  broken  in  constitution,  and  he  yielded.  He  said 
that  the  division  had  better  be  put  off  until  his  time  should  be 
out.  The  majority  acquiesced,  and  the  matter  was  dropped. 
This  is  the  real  explanation  of  the  action  then  taken. 

Bishop  Atkinson  died  in  January,  1881.  At  the  Convention 
in  May  Bishop  Henry  C.  Lay  preached  his  noble  sermon  on  the 
Life  and  Character  of  Bishop  Atkinson,  the  finest  sermon  of  the 
kind  I  have  ever  heard  or  read. 

The  struggle  was  renewed  in  the  Convention  of  1882,  and 
carried  to  a  successful  conclusion  in  1883  in  St.  Peter's  Church. 
Charlotte.  It  was  a  great  struggle.  The  minority  made  a  de- 
termined resistance.  And  even  then  the  fixing  of  the  line  was 
most  difficult.  Several  curious  arrangements  were  proposed. 
More  than  one  suggestion  of  an  east  and  west  line  was  made, 
and  urged  upon  the  ground  that  each  Bishop  ought  to  have  some 
part  of  the  mountains  for  summer  visitations.  This  east  and 
west  line  strongly  appealed  to  one  young  and  ardent  clergyman, 
because,  he  said,  that  by  calling  the  southern  division  the  "Diocese 
of  Carolina,"  we  should  get  the  better  of  cur  South  Carolina 
brethren,  who  are  prone  to  claim  the  name  Carolina  as  their 
peculiar  possession. 

Personally.  I  was  in  favor  of  giving  Halifax  and  Edgecombe 
to  the  Eastern  Diocese,  and  leaving  to  the  east  the  name  of 
North  Carolina,  while  the  western  part  should  become  the  new 
Diocese.  The  committee  appointed  to  report  on  the  line  of  divi- 
sion recommended  the  line  as  it  now  stands,  except  that  it  gave 
Cumberland  also  to  the  western  division.     I  had  become  thor- 


oughly  satisfied  that  Bishop  Lyman  was  determined  to  remain 
in  Raleigh,  and  also  to  retain  the  title,  Bishop  of  North  Carolina. 
I  had  also  ascertained  that  he  would  consent  to  no  division 
which  should  take  Halifax  and  Edgecombe  out  of  his  jurisdiction. 
I  therefore  moved  an  amendment  to  the  report  of  the  commit- 
tee, leaving  those  counties  in  the  west,  but  putting  Cumberland 
into  the  east.  This  was  eventually  done,  and  the  territory  east 
of  the  line  became  the  new  Diocese,  while  the  western  section 
retained  the  name  and  the  traditions  of  the  old  Diocese  of  North 
Carolina.  There  were  embarrassing!  and  painful  experiences  in 
all  these  struggles,  but  it  was  a  necessary  process  in  our  growth 
and  development,  and  has,  I  believe,  been  for  the  welfare  and 
progress  of  the  Church. 

How  the  Diocese  of  East  Carolina  was  organized  at  New 
Bern  in  1884,  chose  its  name,  and  elected  Dr.  Alfred  Augustine 
Watson  its  first  Bishop;  and  how  he  wisely,  faithfully,  unspar- 
ingly, devoted  himself  to  set  it  on  its  way,  I  will  not  attempt  to 
tell.    I  must  keep  to  the  matters  of  common  importance. 

Along  with  the  movement  for  a  new  Diocese  another  agita- 
tion had  sprang  up.  In  the  Convention  of  1877,  General  James 
G.  Martin,  of  Asheville,  had  proposed  that  our  mountain  counties 
should  be  set  off  as  a  Missionary  District.  After  him  the  Rev. 
McNeely  DuBose  took  up  the  cause.  At  the  first  Convention  of 
my  Episcopate,  in  May,  1894,  he  introduced  the  subject,  and  in 
1895  the  Convention,  by  an  all  but  unanimous  vote,  adopted  a 
memorial  to  the  General  Convention,  asking  that  this  should  be 
done. 

I  should  like  to  say  a  word  as  to  my  personal  feeling  and 
action  on  this  question.  I  was  in  sentiment  strongly  against  it. 
I  had  been  much  interested  in  missionary  work.  Though  I  had 
been  a  parochial  minister,  I  had  always  been  active  in  mission- 
ary1 work  beyond  the  bounds  of  my  parish.  As  a  rule  I  had  taken 
no  summer  vacations,  but  had  sent  my  wife  a.nd  children  to  the 
home  of  her  parents,  and  had  spent  my  time  doing  missionary 
work  in  the  neighboring  towns  and  in  the  country.  The  first 
enterprise  I  undertook  after  becoming  Bishop  was  the  revival  of 
the  old  Valle  Crucis  Mission.  I  had  become  deeply  interested  in 
the  mountain  section.  It  seemed  to  me  a  most  attractive  field. 
I  clo  not  believe  that  any  American  Bishop  has  ever  had  more 
exciting  and  gratifying  experiences  in  missionary  work  than  I 
had  in  Watauga,  Mitchell  and  Ashe  Counties,  in  company  with 
that  strange  character,  but  most  effective  missionary,  the  Rev. 
Milnor  Jones.  I  was  strong] y  averse  to  the  thought  of  giving  up 
that  work. 

I  knew  also  that  my  brethren  of  East  Carolina  had  felt  that 
th;v  had  been  hardly  dealt  with  in  the  line  of  division  adopted 

6 


in  1883.  I  found  that  letters  were  being  sent  to  my  people  in 
Halifax  and  Edgecombe,  sounding  them  as  to  their  willingness 
to  come  over  to  the  Diocese  of  East  Carolina.  The  dear  brother 
who  wrote  these  letters  was  an  old  and  valued  friend.  I  wrote 
him  that  I  objected  to  such  letters  being  sent  to  my  people;  but 
I  gave  him  my  promise,  in  case  the  western  counties  were  not 
taken  from  me,  to  take  up  the  question  of  ceding  the  two  coun- 
ties in  the  east,  without  personal  prejudice,  and  to  agree  to 
whatever  might  seem  to  be  for  the  interests  of  the  Church  m 
North  Carolina  as  a  whole.  As  matters  then  stood  with  us,  I  did 
not  feel  that  I  could  give  up  any  territory  in  the  east,  if  the 
twenty-six  counties  of  the  proposed  Missionary  District  should 
rje  taken  from  me  in  the  west. 

Another  consideration  had  a  decisive  influence  with  m?. 
The  long-  contentions  and  discussions  which  preceded  the  erec- 
tion of  the  Diocese  of  East  Carolina  had  strongly  impressed  me 
with  the  feeling  that  a  Bishop  makes  a  mistake,  when  he  op- 
poses the  well-settled  convictions  of  his  clergy  and  people  upon 
a  matter  affecting  the  development  of  the  Diocese.  I  thought 
that  Bishop  Atkinson,  as  great  and  good  as  he  was,  made  a  grave 
mistake  when,  at  th?  adjourned  Convention  in  Raleigh  in  Sep- 
tember, 1877,  he  receded  from  the  position  he  had  so  long  main- 
tained. I  thought  that  Bishop  Lyman  made  a  mistake  in  1882 
and  in  1883,  when  he  strenuously  opposed  what  he  had  strongly 
favored  in  1877.  I  thought  I  had  observed  the  same  mistake  in 
other  great  men  similarly  situated.  Now  the  case  was  my  own. 
With  practical  unanimity  my  Convention  had  me  moralized  the 
General  Convention  to  erect  our  mountain  counties  into  a  Mis- 
sionary District.  I  determined  not  to  make  the  mistake  which 
I  thought  I  had  seen  others  make.  I  determined  that  I  would 
sustain  the  position  taken  by  my  Diocesan  Convention. 

And  in  the  end  I  can  say  that  the  erection  of  the  Missionary 
District  hung  on  my  word.  By  merely  remaining  silent  I  could 
have  seen  the  proposition  fail,  after  I  had  done  everything  which 
a  merely  formal  support  of  it  required  of  me.  The  Committee  on 
Memorials  in  the  House  of  Deputies  never  so  much  as  made  a 
report  on  our  Memorial.  The  Committee  in  the  House  of  Bishops 
reported  unfavorably,  and  advised  that  the  Memorial  be  not 
complied  with.  I  moved  an  amendment,  that  the  Memorial  be 
acceded  to,  and  that  the  Missionary  District  be  erected.  After  a 
debate  on  my  amendment,  it  was  adopted,  and  the  proposition 
was  sent  down  to  the  House  of  Deputies  in  a  message  from  the 
House  of  Bishops.  So  it  had  to  be  voted  on.  The  House  of 
Deputies  concurred  with  the  House  of  Bishops,  and  the  Mission- 
ary' District  of  Asheville  was  erected  in  1895;  and  was  assigned 
temporarily  to  my  Episcopal  care. 


Next  after  this  account  of  our  organic  Diocesan  development 
we  must  consider  our  Church  institutions,  the  permanent  agen- 
cies for  carrying  on  the  incidental  and  collateral  work  of  the 
Church,  in  education,  charity  and  the  like. 

I  have  said  that  in  1876  the  Diocese  had  no  really  organized 
and  established  institutions,  "Ravenscroft,"  at  Asheville,  being 
little  more  than  a  name,  and  Bishop  Lyman's  "Wilberforce 
School,"  at  Morganton,  being  a  dream  wdiich  never  even  began 
to  materialize.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Bronson  was  still  struggling  with 
his  boys'  school,  "The  Thompson  Institute,"  at  Charlotte,  even 
then  seen  to  be  a  failure;  but  a  failure  of  which  I  shall  have 
something  further  to  say  presently. 

About  18S3  the  Rev.  N.  Collin  Hughes,  D.D.,  the  elder, 
"clarum  et  venerabife  nomen,"  began  "Trinity  School,  Choco- 
winty."  With  the  devoted  and  self-sacrificing  co-operation  of 
his  son,  worthily  bearing  his  father's  name,  they  carried  on  the 
school  for  nearly  thirty  years,  between  them;  to  the  untold  bene- 
fit of  that  section  of  the  State,  and  of  the  Church  at  large.  Young 
men  who  under  those  inspiring  teachers  received  spiritual  and 
intellectual  impulse  and  guidance,  have  served  the  Church  of 
Christ  faithfully  and  effectively  from  Alaska  to  Mexico,  and  are 
still  going  on  in  their  useful  labors.  My  father  used  to  say'  that 
of  all  the  men  who  had  served  the  Church  in  North  Carolina,  he 
put  Dr.  Ald?rt  Smedes  first  because  of  the  influence  of  St.  Mary's 
School;  and  that  he  put  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hughes  next,  because  of 
the  men  he  had  trained  and  brought  into  the  ministrv.  And  he 
said  this  before  the  son  had  so  closely  and  worthily  followed  in 
the  father's  footsteps.  Trinity  School,  Chocowinty,  served  its 
°"enprat:ori.  ^nd  then  >t  passed  away;  net  from  any  fault  or 
deficiency  in  father  or  in  son,  but  on  account  of  certain  changing 
social  and  natural  conditions,  no  more  to  be  controlled  than  the 
shiftina  sand-banks  at  Maes  Head — which  bury  forests  and  hu- 
man habitations  impartially  in  their  irresistible  course.  But  n  • 
other  school  for  bovs  in  North  Carolina  has  ever  done  such  a 
work  for  the  Church;  and  to  have  done  that  work  is  enough 
glory  for  any  two  men.  They  wrote  their  names  in  the  life  of 
the  Church  in  this  State. 

It  is  well  known  that  St.  Mary's  School,  Raleiah,  was  found- 
rd  upon  the  ruins  of  Bishop  Ives'  great  project.  "The  Episcopal 
Academy."  InlS76  St.  Mary's  was  in  the  full  tide  of  success  un- 
d°r  its  founder.  Dr.  Aldert  Smedes.  He  died  in  the  sprint  of  1877. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Bennett  Smedes  continued  his  father's  work  worth- 
ily  and  well  for  twenty  vears.  But  changing  conditions  soon  be- 
gan to  increase  his  burdens  and  difficulties.  Our  developing  pub- 
lic school  system  and  the  competition  of  endowed  and  State  sun- 
ported    institutions   eventually'  brought  him   to   the   end   of   his 


resources.  In  the  spring  of  1896  he  came  to  me,  and  said  he 
could  bear  the  burden  no  longer  and  that  the  Church  must  take 
over  St.  Mary's  School,  pr  it  must  be  closed.  I  need  not  tell  the 
story  of  how  the  Diocese  of  North  Carolina,  in  May,  1897,  took 
over  the  school,  and  succeeded  in  purchasing  the  property.  And 
then,  first  East  Carolina  and  Asheville,  and  in  1899  South  Caro- 
lina, joined,  and  St.  Mary's  was  secured  to  the  Church,  and  be- 
came the  Church  School  for  Girls  of  the  Carolina  Dioceses.  Thus 
this  school,  for  the  second  time,  rose  like  the  Phoenix  from  its 
ashes.  May  we  not  trust  that,  by  God's  blessing,  it  may,  like 
the  Phoenix,  have  a  thousand  years  of  life  and  power! 

I  must  speak  of  another  failure.  I  have  a  great  respect  for 
failures,  failures  of  the  right  kind.  Who  does  not  love  and  honor 
the  man  who  <ioes  down,  faithful];  struggling  in  a  noble  and 
righteous  cause?  Indeed  a  life  which  thus  fails  has  not  failed 
By  a  spiritual  conservation  and  persistence  and  transmutation 
of  force,  life  thus  given  goes  on  in  widening  and  increasing 
rower  and  beneficence,  however  it  be  changed  in  form,  however 
we  fail  to  recognize  it.  The  Rev.  Benj.  S.  Bronson's  "Thompson 
Institute"  failed.  Mr.  Bronson  was  but  little  fitted  to  carry  on 
any  scheme  of  practical  work.  He  could  see  what  ought  to  be 
done,  but  he  soon  lost  himself  in  the  complicated  details  of  do- 
ing it.  But  he  had  ideas.  He  had  a  creative  and  constructive 
imagination.  He  had  vision.  He  saw  that,  in  the  highly  develop- 
ed and  involved  conditions  of  artificial  civilization,  the  simple 
evangelistic  and  pastoral  methods  of  earlier  d^ys  were  not  suffi- 
cient to  do  the  Church's  work.  Established  institutions  are 
necessary;  well  organized,  wiselv  planned,  amply  endowed,  they 
become  essential  in  meeting  the  demands  of  our  developed 
social  life.  He  preached  this,  and  to  the  measure  of  his  abilHv 
he  endeavored  to  practice  what  he  nreached.  His  "Thompson 
Institute,"  a  school  for  bovs,  failed.  But  it  revived,  it  lives  again, 
and  blesses  the  Church  todav,  as  the  "Thomnson  Orphanage." 
And  not  only  the  material  foundation  was  laid  by  Mr.  Bronson: 
but  the  idea  of  this  permanent  institution  established  and  con- 
tinuing in  nower  in  the  hands  of  the  Church:  that  also  came 
from  Mr.  Bronson.  The  man  through  whom  the  vision  ma- 
terialized and  became  a  fact  was  Mr.  Bronson's  own  disciple  and 
convert.  The  Rev.  Edwin  S.  Osborne  w^s  one  of  the  ven7 
noblest  and  saintliest  characters  North  Carolina  has  ever  known: 
and  he  had  learned  of  Mr.  Bronson.  and  he  put  into  nractice 
what  he  had  learned  from  him!  And  I  wish  to  acknowledge  with 
Gratitude  my  own  debt  to  that  same  original  and  fertile  mine1 
T  have  been  more  or  less  associated  with  the  establishment  and 
the  development  of  the  Thompson  Orphanage,  St.  Mary's  School 
and  the  two  hospitals  in  Charlotte  St.  Peter's  and  the  Good 
Samaritan;  and  I  wish  to  saw  that  the  stimulating  and  directing 

9 


influence  of  Mr.  Bronson  had  a  vital  part  in  each  one  of  those 
enterprises.  I  believe  we  have  had  few  such  original  and  fruit- 
ful-minded men  anions  the  clergy  of  North  Carolina. 

I  wish  I  had  time  to  speak  of  another  failure,  whose  inspir- 
ing memories,  dwelling  in  the  hearts  of  our  people,  have  re- 
created a  noble  and  romantic  institution,  after  years  of  appar- 
ently irretrievable  ruin.  I  speak  of  Valle  Crucis,  which  went 
down  and  disappeared  in  the  catastrophy  of  Bishop  Ives's  sad 
defection,  but  which,  under  Bishop  Horner's  patronage  and  lead- 
ership, has  achieved  a  position  far  beyond  anything  I  purposed 
or  anticipated  for  my  modest  revival  of  the  work  in  1894,  when 
I  sent  that  remarkable  missionary  Milnor  Jones,  to  re-open  the 
old  mission,  and  to  reclaim  the  Church's  lost  heritage  in  the 
mountains  of  Watauga,  Ashe  and  Mitchell.  And  Bishop  Horner's 
other  excellent  schools,  Christ  School,  Arden,  the  Patterson 
School  in  Caldwell  County,  and  the  Appalachian  School  at  Pen- 
land,  must  not  be  forgotten.  Truly  his  experience  and  training 
under  his  father,  "the  best  teacher  of  boys  who  ever  taught  in 
North  Carolina,"  have  proved  a  rich  benefaction  to  the  people 
of  his  mountain  Diocese. 

And  I  cannot  neglect  to  mention  in  this  connection  St.  Paul's- 
School,  Beaufort.  Its  exact  relation  to  the  Diocese  of  East  Ca- 
rolina I  do  not  understand,  but  none  of  us  can  fail  to  recognize 
it  as  one  of  the  potent  influences  for  good  in  our  Church  life  in 
North  Carolina;  not  only  as  a  source  of  local  enlightenment  and 
culture,  but  also  as  following  closely  the  traditions  of  Trinity 
School,  Chocowinity,  by  influencing  and  developing  ytoung  men 
to  be  able  and  effective  pastors  and  missionaries  of  the;  Church. 
I  cannot  help  conjecturing  that  its  founder,  Mrs.  Geoffroy,  must 
somehow  have  caught  the  spirit  of  the  Hugheses,  father  and  son. 

The  Church  in  North  Carolina  during  the  past  fifty  years 
has  also  a  fine  record  in  hospital  work,  though  in  the  nature  ot 
the  case  such  institutions  are  of  a  local  rather  than  of  a  Diocesan 
character.  Charlotte,  I  believe,  had  the  first  hospital  supported 
by  voluntary  contributions,  to  be  established  in  this  State,  St. 
Peter's  Hospital.  The  Good  .Samaritan  Hospital,  in  the  same 
city,  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first  hospital  for  Negroes  in  the 
South.  I  am  proud  to  have  had  some  share  in  both  these:  but 
the  chief  credit  for  both  must  be  given  to  the  late  Mrs.  John 
Wilkes,  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  and  she  acted  under  the  inspira- 
tion received  in  part  certainly  from  her  former  pastor,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Bronson.  St.  Asrnes  Hospital,  Raleigh,  is  a  collateral  de- 
velopment of  the  wor\:  of  St.  Augustine  School,  and  is  due  to  the 
indefatigable  labors  of  Mrs.  A.  Burtis  Hunter,  wife  of  the  Prin- 
cipal of  the  school  from  1892  to  1915.  It  is  believed  to  be  the 
larrest  and  best  equipped  hospital  for  Negroes  south  of  Wash- 

10 


ington  City.  This,  however,  is  not  a  Diocesan,  but  a  general,  in- 
stitution, huilt  up  and  sustained  by  the  Church  at  large,  and 
especially  by  the  generous  contributions  of  the  Woman's  Auxil- 
iary. 

I  may  say  here  that  in  this  address  I  have  not  included  the 
Colored  work  in  the  North  Carolina  Dioceses,  because  that  ha3 
been  nurtured  and  supported  almost  exclusively  by  appropria- 
tions from  the  treasury  of  the  National  Church.  I  am  happy  to 
know,  however,  that  within  the  last  few  years  our  Dioceses  have 
been  taking  upon  themselves  a  larger  share  of  responsibility  for 
supporting  our  Negro  work. 

•I  have  been  speaking  of  outward  organization  and  develop- 
ment; for  it  is  only  the  outward  that  we  can  see,  and  describe  in 
words.  But  we  are  conscious  of  an  inner  life  and  of  spiritual 
forces  and  currents  helow  the  surface,  which  give  all  their  real 
value  to  the  things  we  can  see  and  describe.  This  inner  life  and 
devotion  of  our  people,  as  I  see  it,  I  wish  I  could  set  before  you. 
In  preparing  for  this  address  I  made  a  study  of  the  growth  and 
development  in  my  own  Diocese,  as  that  with  which  I  am  best 
acquainted,  and  as  probably  illustrating  the  growth  east  and 
west  as  well.  But  I  find  I  must  omit  it  for  lack  of  time  and' 
space.  The  interesting  result  of  that  study  showed  quite  clearly 
to  me  that  the  chief  cause  of  our  growth  has  been  the  voluntarv 
and  spontaneous  work  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  reaching  out  into 
the  unoccupied  places,  and  taking  possession  of  them  for  Christ 
and  His  Church,  rather  than  the  activity  of  our  professedly  mis- 
sionary agencies. 

Another  thing  I  seemed  to  see,  viz:  That  this  spontaneous 
expansion  and  missionary  activity  of  our  parochial  clergy  was 
much  more  evident  during  the  first  half  of  these  fifty  years,  than 
in  the  second  half.  This  I  attribute:  to  the  very  great  increase  in 
parochial  work  and  parochial  organizations,  which  make  such 
demands  upon  the  time  and  labor  of  the  clergy.  It  is  hard  to 
realize  that  fifty  years  ago  we  had  no  Woman's  Auxiliary,  no 
Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrew,  Daughters  of  the  King,  or  Girls' 
Friendlyi  Society.  What  these  mean  in  the  life  of  the  Church  it 
is  hard  to  compute.  Certainly  they  mark  an  immense  develop- 
ment, whose  possibilities  we  are  but  beginning  to  appreciate. 

But  in  referring  to  the  missionary  work  of  the  Church  dur- 
ing the  past  fifty  years,  there  are  one  or  two  illustrations  of  that 
work  which  I  cannot  omit,  though  I  must  he  as  bri^f  as  possiWe 
in  speaking  of  them.  The  first  is  the  work  of  Milnor  Jones,  in 
the  mountains.  From  1880  to  1890,  he  covered  the  counties  op 
Polk,  Rutherford  and  Henderson,  or  very  great  parts  of  them, 
with  his  amazing  activities.  In  these  sections,  where  the  Church 
had  been  utterly  unknown,  he  had  nearly  six  hundred  baptisms. 

11 


nearly  two  hundred  confirmations,  and  established  so  many  mis- 
sions, that  no  one  after  him  was  ever  able  to  keep  up  the  work  in 
them.  Then  from  1894  to  1897  he  devoted  himself  to  the  work 
in  Watauga,  Ashe  and  Mitchell  counties.  iHe  revived  the  extinct 
mission  of  Valle  Crucis,  established  several  missions  in  Ashe  and 
Mitchell  counties,  and  made  a  lasting  impression  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Church.  I  count  in  the  list  of  parishes  and 
missions,  in  the  present  Diocese  of  Western  North  Carolina,  ten 
or  a  dozen  which  had  their  origin  in  his  efforts;  and  in  many 
places  good  beginnings  which  he  made  were  neglected,  and  hav3 
disappeared,  because  it  was  not  possible  to  find  men  to  carry  on 
the  work. 

I  must  not  pass  over  the  work  of  the  late  Dr.  Murdoch  in 
Rowan  and  in  adjoining  counties.  We  have  seven  or  eight 
churches  which  sprang  from  his  missionary  labors. 

I  am  sure  I  shall  be  pardoned  if  I  take  a  moment  to  tell  of 
the  good  work  now  going  on  in  Edgecombe,  my  native  county, 
under  the  Rev.  Bertram  E.  Brown,  Mr.  Samuel  Nash  and  their 
associates,  a  work  not  only  of  importance  in  its  immediate  re- 
sults, but  also  important  as  showing  what  can  be  done  by  one 
parish,  if  there  be  mutual  co-operation  between  rector  and 
people.  This  work  had  its  origin  in  a  country  Sunday  School 
begun  by  a  young  country  girl  who  had  been  baptized  and  con- 
firmed at  St.  Mary's  School,  Raleigh.  Aided  by  men  and  women 
of  Calvary  Church,  Tarboro,  whom  she  called  to  her  assistance, 
the  Sunday  School  quickly  developed  into  St.  Mary's  Chapel,  now 
St.  Mary's  Church,  Speed;  and  presently  was  added  Grace  Mem- 
orial Chapel,  Lawrence,  and  later  St.  Matthew's  Church.  Some- 
how, by  a  process  of  evolution  and  natural  selection,  Mr.  Nash 
became  the  leader  and  the  chief  actor  in  these  missionary  ac- 
tivities. And  then  in  God's  good  providence  the  Rev.  Mr.  Brown 
became  rector  of  Calvary  'Church,  Tarboro.  Mr.  Brown  had  not 
been  familiar  with  work  of  this  kind.  But  h~  was  voung  enough 
and  he  was  wise  enough  to  learn.  "Bishop,"  he  said  to  me,  when 
I  spoke  to  him  of  his  extraordinary  work,  "I  learned  it  all  right 
here."  And  he  extended  and  developed  it,  until  I  cannot  under- 
take to  say  how  many  services  are  held  each  week  by  him  and 
his  helpers  in  the  parish  church  and  in  the  six  country  churches, 
in  smaller  buildings  in  the  country,  and  in  the  suburbs  of  Tar- 
boro.   And  the  work  goes  on. 

I  have  referred  to  outward  organization,  to  the  things  we 
can  see  and  can  speak  of,  and  also  to  that  inner  spirit  of  life  ana 
of  power  which  we  cannot  so  fully  see  or  describe.  There  is  one 
denartment  of  our  church  life  combining  these  two  in  a  remark- 
able decree.  The  Woman's  Auxiliary  is  a  spiritual  power,  potent 
and  pervasive  beyond  our  ability  to  measure  or  to  express;  and 

12 


also  its  works  arte  manifest  at  all  times  and  everywhere.  It  did  not 
exist  in  1876.  How  we  in  1926  could  do  without  it,  what  Bishop 
likes  to  think!  Can  anyone,  who  knows  of  the  Woman's  Auxil- 
iary, deny  that  the  world  grows  ibetter?  And  I  am  told  that  at 
New  Orleans  in  1925  our  North  Carolina  branches  stood  with 
the  first. 

I  cannot  speak  at  large  of  the  Every  Member  Nation-wide 
Campaign.  Throughout  our  three  Dioceses  it  has  been  the  most 
blessed  experience  the  Church  has  ever  known.  It  is  our  com- 
mon joy  that  the  North  Carolina  Dioceses  have  never  failed  in  do- 
ing their  part  in  this  work.  But  what  we  have  thus  done  in  the 
general  work  of  the  Church  is  a  small  thing  compared  with  what 
we  ourselves  have  gained,  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea,  in  our 
own  work  and  in  our  own  life.  Never  before  have  our  people 
had  their  leiars  so  open  as  they  are  now  to  hear  the  voice  calling 
them.  Never  have  they  been  so  prompt  and  earnest  in  their  re- 
sponse: "Here  am  I.  Send  me."  We  in  the  South  are  proud  to 
think  that  it  was  in  this  Province,  and  under  the  extraordinary 
leadership  of  our  Provincial  Secretary,  the  Rev.  Robt.  W.  Patton, 
that  the  Every  Member  Canvass  achieved  such  results  as  caused 
the  leaders  of  the  National  Church  to  commission  Dr.  Patton  to 
inaugurate  throughout  the  country  what  had  been  so  effective 
in  the  Province  of  Sewanee.  And  as  St.  James's  Church,  Wil- 
mington, stood  out  one  of  the  most  striking  illustrations  of  the 
succ-ss  accomplished  in  the  Province,  so  the  Diocese  of  East. 
Carolina  has  the  further  honor  of  ibeing  either  the:  first,  or  among 
the  very  first,  in  the  work  of  our  Forward  Movement.  Her  dis- 
tinguished Presbyter,  Dr.  Milton,  has  toeen  among  the  foremost 
of  thos;  inspiring  leaders  who  have  been  rousing  our  whole  Na- 
t'onal  Church  to  a  realization  of  the  opportunity  and  the  obliga- 
tion set  before  us  in  this  great  movement. 

And  now  the  Bishop  of  East  Carolina  has  become  the  leader 
throughout  the  Church  in  another  Nation-wide  Movement,  go- 
ing deeper  into  the  heart  of  things,  and  promising  to  loose  the 
floods  of  spiritual  power,  which  we  must  believe  are  with  us  who 
have  the  gift  of  th::  Spirit,  but  which  lie  congealed  and  made 
ineffective  by  the  coldness  of  our  selfish  and  thoughtless  lives. 

Ar.d  what  should  I  say  more;  for  the  time  would  fail  me.  It 
I  tried  to  say  all  that  I  have  in  my  mind.  I  have  tried  to  point 
out  the  general  course  of  the  history!  and  development  of  the 
Church  in  North  'Carolina  from  the  year  1876  to  this  year  of 
Grace  1926.  The  sixty  clergymen,  the  96  parishes  and  missions, 
the  4,347  communicants,  of  1876,  have  become  146  clergymen, 
296  parishes  and  missions,  and  20,613  communicants.  I  have 
spokrn  of  our  schools,  our  orphanage,  our  hospitals.  I  mi<?V 
mention  our  most  interesting  work  among  our  doaf  rmitps.     We 

13 


have  a  deaf  mute  clergyman  of  our  own,  raised  up  among  our- 
selves, and  supported  by  us,  in  serving  this  most  interesting  and 
estimable  class  of  our  people.  We  have  been  also  the  first  Dio- 
cese to  assume  the  support  of  a  colored  suffragan  Bishop  for  our 
colored  churchmen. 

I  had  hoped  to  speak  of  Bishop  Atkinson,  of  Bishop,  Lyman, 
of  Bishop  Watson,  and  of  Bishop  Strange.  I  had  thought  that 
I  should  say  something  of  our  dear  brother  whom  we  are  here 
to  honor,  and  of  his  great  father,  who  was  truly  one  of  the 
noblest  figures  in  the  history  of  our  Church  in  North  Carolina. 
He  was  my  God-father;  so  his  son  and  I  are  brothers  by  spiritual 
affinity,  and  our  mothers  were  sisters.  From  our  boyhood  we 
grew  up  together,  for  a  time  at  least,  in  one  household,  a  house- 
hold which  experienced  in  full  measure  the  blessing  spoken  of 
byi  the  Psamist:  "Behold  how  good  and  pleasant  it  is  for  breth- 
ren to  dwell  together  in  unity."  We  stand  so  close  together 
that  I  cannot  find  it  in  my  power  to  speak  much  of  him;  and  here 
in  his  presence!  But  there  is  little  need  that  I  should  speak.  He 
has  had  but  tbJs  one  parish,  and  he  has  lived  in  this  parish  for 
fifty  years.  And  at  the  end  of  these  fifty  years  he  enjoys  the 
confidence  and  the  affection  of  the  whole  community;  not  be- 
cause they  have  always  agreed  with  him;  but  because  they  have 
found  him  always  and  in  all  things  honest,  true,  courageous  and 
good.  They  know  him.  They  know  that  he  is  a  faithful  and 
diligent  pastor  and  priest;  and  they  know,  too,  that  he  is  a  man. 
And  they,  like  the  combination. 

My  father  was  the  first  cUrgyman  who  in  North  Carolina 
served  one  parish  for  fifty  years.    Dr.  Drane  is  another. 

He  is  the  only  clergyman  now  livino;  in  the  State  of  North 
Carolina  who  was  one  of  our  clerey  in  1876.  The  only  lay  mem- 
ber of  the  Convention  in  1S76,  and  also  in  1926,  is  our  good 
brother,  Mr.  Robert  R.  Cotten.  Mr.  Samuel  S.  Nash  was  at  both, 
but  not  a  member  in  1926.  X  was  in  the  Convention  in  both 
vears,  a  layman  in  1876.  We  fo^r  connect  these  Conventions, 
three  of  o^p  family  connection,  and  all  four  members  of  Calvary 
Church,  TRrbo^o. 

As  we  look  ^ack  over  these  fifty  years,  and  miss  so  man'' 
of  the  nohle  and  good,  and  note  how  time  deals  with  us  who  are 
left,  we  are  tempted  to  think: 

"How  few,  all  weak  and  withered  of  their  force, 

Wait  on  the  verge  of  dark  eternity 
Like    stranded   wr~ck=;,   the   tide   returning  hoarse, 
To  sweep  them  from  our  sight!" 

But  we  are  not  yet,  I  trust,  quite  "stranded  wrecks."  And 
certainly  we  know  that  it  is  no  "dark  eternity"  which  confronts 
us;  but  an  eternitv  bright  with  the  promises  and  the  smile  of  our 
Heavenly  Father! 

14 


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